SOUTHLAND “Code 4″ Season 3 Episode 4 - Wow. No hints, no clues, even a semi-fakeout with Tammi being reluctant to talk about the baby and then the woman’s shrill scream in the flashforward. I was gearing up for Tammi losing the baby and Sammy being there for her, but the reality? Wow.
Nate Moretta was my favorite character on Southland; smart, funny, a bit of a flirt, but a brilliant friend, husband and father. Halfway through the episode I had a fleeting thought about whether Nate working in Gangs could endanger his family, but that was about as close as I came to actually considering him dying. Sure, there was a clean-living man with a family not unlike Nate’s gunned down in the same episode, but it didn’t occur to me that they would actually kill Nate.
But his death highlighted some of the things I love about this show. Here is the death of one of the series’ lead characters, someone who has been there since the pilot episode and is loved by fans. On other TV shows you might get a spoiler released well in advance to warn you about the death, or the episode focuses mainly on that one character, or there’s some sort of cheesy telegraphing with everyone saying ‘be careful, watch your back’ and the like. On Southland there was nothing. When a lead character died it was brutal and final – and that only adds to the realistic quality of this show.
Putting Nate’s death aside, this was a great episode. Sammy’s still having issues with Tammi and Victor, leading him to lose his temper more than once. This was starting to annoy me until the end of the episode when everything fell into place.
Lydia gets called in to help two hapless detectives on a drugs murder case. While they seem determined to just write the case off, Lydia makes some headway and, with help from an ever-vigilant Cooper and Sherman – finds the killer. But he claims that the deceased’s nephew put him up to it – a 14 year old kid with an overbearing mother. This seems like a great setup for future episodes and for Lydia in particular. Will she be able to pin the murder or drugs on ‘Gizmo’? Is his mother involved? I can’t wait to see if and how this plays out.
Sherman is still dealing with his demons from last week. Cooper thinks he’s getting too cocky. Put the two together, throw in a little bit of crazy, and you end up with some of the funniest scenes to date. I thought Cooper was being a royal ass until he explained his reasons for riding Sherman so hard at the end of the episode. Cooper’s a good guy – but surely his own issues are going to come and bite him in the ass soon enough?
I have to end the review with this: Kevin Alejandro, will you ever live through a show I like? Ugly Betty, Sons of Anarchy, Southland. At least you waited until the last episode of Gemini Division before kicking the bleedin’ bucket. Sheesh.
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